124 Cal. 468 | Cal. | 1899
Petition for writ of certiorari. One Roberts brought an action against the petitioners herein, Maxson and Harris, in the justice’s court; the petitioners, as defendants in said action, demurred to the complaint; the demurrer was overruled and judgment entered for plaintiff, and the petitioners appealed from the judgment of the superior court “on questions of law alone.” Hpon the hearing of the appeal, the superior court ordered “that the judgment of the lower court be and the same is hereby reversed, with directions to the said lower court to sustain the demurrer of the defendants to the complaint of the plaintiff, with leave to the said plaintiff to amend his complaint if so advised.” In the present proceeding in this court the petitioners seek to have said order reviewed, and to have annulled all that portion of the order after the word “reversed,” upon the ground that the superior court had no jurisdiction to make any of the latter part of said order.
The provisions of the code touching procedure on appeals from the justice’s court to the superior court in civil cases, where the appeal is taken “on questions of law” alone, are very brief and meager, and it is not surprising that decisions as to the power of the superior court on such appeals arc not entirely harmonious. Where the appeal is taken “on questions of fact” or “on questions of both law and fact,” the procedure seems to be plain. In that case no statement is required, “but the action must be tried anew in the superior court” (Code Civ. Proc., sec. 976), and the justice is required to transfer to the superior court certified copies of “his docket, the pleadings, all notices, motions, and other papers filed in the cause, the notice of appeal, and the undertaking filed.” (Code Civ. Proc., sec. 977.) On such appeal, therefore, the entire cause is transferred to the superior court, and thereafter the latter court has exclusive jurisdiction
When an appeal is taken on questions of law alone the appeal goes to the superior court upon “a statement of the case” (Code Civ. Proc., sec. 975)'—except, perhaps, that a statement is not necessary where the justice’s docket, or copies of papers required to be sent up by him, show upon their face the errors complained of. (Southern Pac. R. R. Co. v. Superior Court, 59 Cal. 471.) And section 980 provides as follows: “Upon an appeal heard upon a statement of the case”—which of course means an appeal upon questions of law alone—“the superior court may revieiv all orders affecting the judgment appealed from, and may set aside, or affirm, or modify any or all of the proceed
It is not the law, however, as claimed by petitioners, that after a judgment of reversal in the superior court, in a case like the one here involved, the case is no longer pending in the justice’s court, that the judgment of reversal is a dismissal of the action, and that there can be no further proceeding in it in either court. Under such a view, if a plaintiff should appeal from a judgment against him founded upon an erroneous view of the law—as where a demurrer to the complaint was erroneously sustained in the justice’s court—the only effect of his appeal, although the superior court should hold his complaint to be good, would be a dismissal of his action. Such a defeat
There are three decisions of this court somewhat in point. In Myrick v. Superior Court, supra, the action of the superior court on an appeal from a justice’s court was reviewed on certiorari. In the justice’s court a motion of defendant to dismiss the action had been granted, and judgment in his favor rendered for costs, and the plaintiff had appealed. The superior court tried the whole case and gave judgment for plaintiff. This court, in Bank, annulled the judgment upon the ground that there could be no trial of issues of fact in the superior court because there had been none in the justice’s court, and in its opinion, said: “The superior court should have reversed that judgment and sent the ease back for trial on the issues tendered by the pleadingsThis, of course, was a clear declaration of the power of the superior court to remand a cause; but there is some ground for the contention that it should not be received as direct authority on the point because the language quoted was not necessary to the decision. In Larue v. Gaskins, 5 Cal. 508, the justice’s court had erroneously transferred a forcible entry case to the district court, and the latter court had tried the case and rendered judgment against defendant, and this court reversed the judgment “with instructions to remit the case to the justice,” and held that the illegal transfer did not defeat plaintiff’s rights “by operating a discontinuance”; but, although the case seems to be in point, the report of it is so meager that it cannot be very surely relied on as an authority. In Brown v. Superior Court, 72 Cal. 14, the demurrer of the defendant in a criminal prosecution in the justice’s court to the complaint ivas sustained, and the people appealed. Afterward, the defendant appeared in the superior court and confessed error, and asked that the cause be remanded to the justice’s court to be there tried upon a plea of not guilty which liad been therein made. The court refused to remand, and ordered the defendant to plead in that court, and
If, however, the authorities above cited cannot be considered as definitely determining the point, still we think that, upon principle, the statements of the law therein made are correct. The main objection to the jurisdiction of the superior court to remand a cause to the justice’s court is founded upon the suggestion that the code does not provide machinery adequate to that purpose. But where in the same judicial system there is the relation of a subordinate and appellate court, the latter in all cases where it has appellate jurisdiction necessarily has the power to make such orders and render such judgments as are requisite to enforce its appellate power. The authority which confers its appellate jurisdiction might limit it as to the mode of exercising that jurisdiction; but where there is no such limitation it may use ordinary and necessary methods to enforce compliance with its mandates. The constitution provides that superior courts shall have appellate jurisdiction “in such cases arising in justices’ and other inferior courts in their respective counties as may be prescribed by law”; and there is no doubt that the case involved here is one of the eases over which jurisdiction was given to the superior court by the legislature. Section 980 of the Code of Civil Procedure says: That upon an appeal on questions of law alone “'the superior court may review all orders affecting the judgment appealed from, and may set aside, or confirm, or modify any and all other proceedings subsequent to and dependent upon such judgment, and may, if necessary or proper, order a new trial.” This language confers upon the superior court plenary appellate jurisdiction, and there are no
The order sought to be reviewed in this proceeding is affirmed, and the proceeding is dismissed.
Temple, J., Henshaw, J., Garoutte, J., Van Dyke, J., Harrison, J., and Beatty, C. J., concurred.